Ray Goossens

Regolux, RGLX, Ray

(26 October 1924 - 10 December 1998, Belgium)

Tsjoem

Ray Goossens is mainly known for his work in the animation field, but he also had a productive career as a comic artist. His first comic, 'Reynaart de Vos', was published in the Antwerp paper Het Vlaamsche Land in March 1941. He then enrolled in the Antwerp Acedemy of Fine Arts, where he met Jules Luyckx. Goossens and Luyckx started working on a 16 mm animation film and eventually founded the AFIM animation studios with Henri Winkeler and Edmond Roex in 1943. The studios employed future comic artists like Bob de Moor and produced such films as 'Smidje Smee' and 'Hoe Pimmeke ter Wereld Kwam'. World War II put an end to the activities of the studio in the Spring of 1944. Goossens and Luyckx went into hiding to avoid the German forced labour.

Ouwe Taai (De Zweep, 1946)

After the War, the artists found employment with the publisher Hoste. Using the joint signature of Regolux, Goossens and Luycks created the comic 'Ouwe Taaie' in De Zweep in February 1945. Goossens continued this strip on his own from September 1945 to 1954. The duo was also present in the scouts magazine Kampvuur with 'Jantje Pap', in De Zondagsvriend with cartoons and in Vrouw en Huis with 'Bouboule'. Goossens was furthermore an illustrator for Zondagsvriend, Volksweekblad and Gazet van Antwerpen. For the Handelsblad, Goossens illustrated the weekly comic 'Jeepke's Avonturen' and the irregular appearing stop comic 'Mr. Snor' in 1946.

Ray Goossens was one of the driving forces behind the Zondagsvriend supplement Kleine Zondagsvriend from its start in 1945, together with artists like Bob de Moor and the brothers Mark en Tom Payot. Still using the name Regolux, he and Luyckx began the gag strip 'Tijl Uilenspiegel' (later renamed to 'Tijl en De Lamme' or 'De Lamme') and 'Pimmeke'. When the team broke up, Goossens continued 'Tijl en Lamme', while Luyckx drew 'Pimmeke' until 1948. Goossens additionally created the adventure series of 'Snops en de Bende', of which six continuing stories appeared between 1946 and 1951. He then made another version of 'Reinaert de Vos' (1947-48) and his final creation for KZV is the gag series about the parrot 'Tsjoem', a character originating from the 'Snops' comic (1951-54).

He had already resumed his animation activities in the late 1940s. He made a cartoon about his comic character 'De Lamme', as well as several advertising films through his own animation studios in Antwerp. He got his breakthrough after his association with the Van Dam K.H. advertising agency in 1949. Goossens dropped all his comic activities in 1954 and by 1959, he became artistic director of publisher Lombard's Belvision studios. There, he worked on animation projects with the publisher's comic characters 'Chlorophylle', 'Spaghetti', 'Houmpa Pa' and 'Tintin', as well as the full-animation movie 'Pinocchio in Outer Space'.

He went independent again in 1965, and took assignments from among others the BRT. He was employed by TV Dupuis between 1969 and 1976, where he succeeded Eddy Ryssack as head of the studio and developed successful animation series like 'Musti', 'Tip en Tap', 'De Pili's and 'Boule et Bill'. Goossens moved his own studio to Deurne in 1976, where he continued to work on 'Musti' and a new series for the BRT, called 'Plons de Gekke Kikker'. Ray Goossens was a teacher in animation at the R.I.T.C.S. in Brussels from 1977 until his reitrement in 1989.